With certain directors, after a time, one expects to see familiar traits: the way a scene is presented; the pacing of it or the way the director tells the story through his camera lens.  In this regards, Pedro Almodovar does not disappoint… for the most part. Antonio Banderas plays a successful plastic surgeon.  Having created an artificial skin, he has been testing it on a woman he keeps captive.  At one point, I was getting a physical reaction to what I was watching on screen and it was not from the scenes that had blood in them.  It was more about the subject matter and the characters’ reactions.  Even though individual scenes were well done, I felt a disconnect between scenes which caused the movie to drag for me.  However, this movie does set a new high standard for what it means to take revenge.  Spanish with English subtitles.

2 3/4 stars